Straight-talking former vice President at the world bank Oby Ezekwezili said Saturday that the much maligned economic policies of President Muhammadu Buhari will take Nigeria nowhere and that it was time for the government which came to power on the mantra of change to change tact.
She was spoke in Abuja at the platform, a programme organized by the Covenant Christian centre founded by pastor Poju Oyemade and which several other speakers including vice president Yemi Osinbajo also participated.
According to Ezekwesili who has also served as minister in charge of education and solid minerals, the current economic policies are similar to those Buhari enacted during the military regime he led in the 1980s and not many in Nigeria could say that period counted as among those to be fondly remembered in Nigeria.
Ezekwesili said Mr. Buhari’s “archaic” and “opaque” economic principles are not only encouraging corruption and abuse of power, but also hurting the poor they were intended to help.
“During the first coming of this our new president, a command and control economic system was adopted.
“During that era, inflation spiralled. During that era, jobs were lost. During that era, the economic growth level dipped,” Ezekwesili said.
She said “that era wasn’t the best of eras in economic progress.
“What did not work in 1984 cannot possibly be a solution in a global economy that’s much more integrated.”
Ezekwesili said Mr. Buhari was rehashing the same.
“In over one year, the president is still holding to the premise that command and control is the only way out,” Mrs. Ezekwesili said. “In a year we have lost the single-digit inflation status we maintained in past administrations.”
Ezekwesili said President Buhari’s distortion of foreign exchange system has left the poor it was intended to support even worse off.
“The president comes into this economic philosophy on the premise that he does not want the poor to suffer. I can relate to that, a leader must not allow the poor to suffer, especially a leader who knows that most of his votes came not from the elite but from the poor.
“The problem though is that the intention and the outcome are diverged.
“The weakest and the most vulnerable suffer the impact of inflation the most. Enormous power is being abused as a result of opaque economic policies.
“Companies are suddenly finding themselves unable to produce because they’re unable to access foreign exchange,” Ezekwesili said.
She urged Mr. Buhari to sit down with his team and reconsider the impact his polices have had on the nation’s economy, insisting that the recent economic growth story of Nigeria came from a deliberate market driven approach of the past governments.
She quoted an American parlance that says if something is not broken there’s no need fixing it”.
Mr. President she said should sit with his team and look at the economic evidence that speaks loudly. It’s time to sit back and review the well-intended idea of command and control economic principle.
